YES Bank is planning to take a long hard look at its asset management business. The private sector lender f orayed into this business last year .

The move comes at a time when banks are looking to optimise their capital by divesting non-core assets. The operating environment for mutual funds has become challenging, with financial markets in a yo-yo mode.

YES Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, YES Asset Management (India) Ltd, currently has about Rs 1,400 crore of average assets under management.

"As far as the asset management business is concerned, given that it is a very long-gestation business, we need to take a call in terms of what our future plans are. We haven't made up our mind yet.

"The first priority was to recapitalise the bank and that journey has started," said Ravneet Gill, MD & CEO, YES Bank.

Gill emphasised that the success of his bank’s recent ₹1,930-crore qualified institutions placement (QIP) shows that investors were getting comfortable with their understanding of the bank in terms of asset book and growth strategy.

The QIP has increased the bank's CET-1 (common equity tier-1 capital), up from 8 per cent to 8.60 per cent.

"We will now think in terms of what to do with the subsidiaries. But even within the subsidiaries, YES Securities is fine. It is self-funding.

"As far as the asset management business is concerned, we will take a final call in terms of what we want to do with it going forward," said Gill.

YES Asset Management currently has schemes under two fund categories -- liquid fund and ultra short-term fund.

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